Transcript Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses -- Debate

Restrictive and Nonrestrictive
Clauses: A Look at The Polarities
of These Terms and Their
Usefulness in Regard to Student
Writing and Instruction
Ms. Pennell’s Instruction and Presentation of
Brock Haussamen’s NCTE Paper “Between
Restrictive and Nonrestrictive:
Amplifying Clauses”
Our purpose with this lesson …
• There exists a scholarly debate in regard
to how to teach students punctuation in
regard to restrictive and nonrestrictive
clauses.
• Ms. Pennell is interested in finding out how
you believe you should be taught these
concepts.
So here is the plan …
• First, we will review clauses in general.
• I will teach you what your grammar book
says about restrictive and nonrestrictive
clauses; in other words, I will teach you in
the manner of traditional grammar in
regard to how to punctuate your
sentences.
After all of this …
• We will examine an interesting scholarly
paper on a different way to teach students
about restrictive or nonrestrictive clauses.
• I will teach you about clauses that are
called “amplifying” clauses.
• We will take some time to let these new
ideas take hold in those lovely brains of
yours.
After all of that …
• You will decide which pedagogical approach (or
way to teach you about these types of clauses)
makes more sense to you.
• We will all discuss which approach is easier asa
class.
• You will then defend your assertion with a logical
argument. In other words, you must tell me why
one approach works better for you than the
other.
Step One: A Review of Clauses
(pages 314 to 325 in your grammar textbook)
• A clause is a group of words with its own
subject and verb.
• There are two basic kinds of clauses:
– Independent and Dependent Clauses
Just a bit more on Independent
Clauses …
• Independent Clauses can stand by themselves
as complete sentences.
• Punctuating these clauses can be as easy as
beginning with an upper case letter and finishing
with a period:
– I see Jane run.
• To as complex as using a semicolon followed a
conjunctive adverb:
– The librarian wanted all of the children to read the
book; however, she was limited in regard to the
number of copies available.
More on punctuating independent
clauses …
•Let’s not forget the comma rule that goes along with
coordinating conjunctions or the fanboys (for, and, nor,
but, or, yet, so):
Tom wanted to write the next great American novel,
and he knew one day he would achieve this goal.
We could also use the semicolon, but in order
to do so the two independent clauses must be
related:
Eating ice cream with the kids was fun for granny for a little while;
what the elderly matron truly craved was the type of excitement
that lay beyond the confines of a family setting. She wanted to feel
the thrill of speed; she wanted to devote what remained of her life
to drag racing with unicorns!
Subordinate Clauses …
• Like phrases, subordinate clauses function
in sentences as single parts of speech:
– As Adjectives
– As Adverbs
– As Nouns
Adjective Clauses
• One way to describe, limit, or qualify any
noun or pronoun in a sentence is to use an
adjective clause.
• An adjective clause is subordinate clause
that modifies a noun or pronoun by telling
what kind or which one.
Adjective Clauses, Relative
Pronouns, and Relative Adverbs …
• An adjective clause is usually connected
to the word it modifies by one of the
relative pronouns:
– that, which, who, whom, or whose
Sometimes, adjective clauses are
connected by a relative adverb:
after, before, since, when, where, why
Essential and Nonessential
Adjective Clauses
• Like participial and appositive phrases, adjective
clauses are set off by punctuation only when
they are not essential to the meaning of a
sentence.
– Ex of a Nonessential Adjective Clause:
– The ship, which was a nuclear submarine, became
the first vessel to pass beneath the North Pole.
– Nonessential adjective phrases need commas.
– Ex of an Essential Adjective Clause:
– The first vessel that passed beneath the North Pole
was a nuclear submarine.
– Essential adjective clauses do not need commas.
Introductory Words in Relative
Pronouns …
• Relative pronouns and relative adverbs
not only introduce adjective clauses, but
also function within the subordinate
clause. They:
– Connect the adjective clause to the modified
word and
– Act within the clause as a subject, direct
object, or other sentence part
The Uses of Relative Pronouns
Within the Clause
• As a subject:
– Sentence: The part of Alaska that is within the
Arctic Circle is cold most of the year.
– Clause: that (subject) is (verb) within the
Arctic Circle
The Uses of Relative Pronouns
Within the Clause
• As a Direct Object:
– Sentence: The explorer whom I met last year has
never been to the North Pole.
– Reworded Clause: I met (verb) whom (direct object)
last year
– Review: A direct object is a noun, pronoun, or group
of words that receives the action of a transitive verb. It
is one of the five complements (the word or group of
words that completes the meaning of the predicate in
a sentence) – direct objects, indirect objects,
objective complements, predicate nominatives, and
predicate adjectives (page 284 of your grammar
book).
The Uses of Relative Pronouns
Within the Clause
• As the Object of a Preposition:
– Sentence: The climate is one in which little
foliage can grow.
– Reworded Clause: little foliage (subject) can
grow (verb) in (preposition) which (object of
preposition)
– Review: The object of a preposition is the
noun or pronoun that completes the
information that the preposition provides
(page 165 of your grammar book).
The Uses of Relative Pronouns
Within the Clause
• As an Adjective:
– Sentence: I saw a dog whose sled left without
him.
– Reworded Phrase: Whose (adjective) sled
(subject) left (verb) without him.
– Review: An adjective is a word used to
describe a noun or pronoun or to give a noun
or pronoun more specific meaning (adjectives
– pages 248 to 251 in your grammar book).
A note about understood relative
pronouns …
• Sometimes, a relative pronoun is
understood rather than expressed. It,
nevertheless, still functions in the
sentence.
– Ex: The dog sled (that) Ted drove won the
race.
– Relative adverbs can only act as adverbs
within a clause.
Adverb Clauses
• Adverb clauses modify verbs, adjectives,
adverbs, or verbals by telling where, when, in
what way, to what extent, under what conditions,
or why.
• Each adverb clause contains a subject and a
verb and is introduced by a subordinating
conjunction such as although, because, if where,
or while (Chapter 17 of your grammar book has
a complete list of these – we have also called
them dependent marker words in other
grammatical explanations this year).
Adverb Clauses
• An adverb clause can modify verbs,
adjectives, adverbs, or verbals:
• Examples of adverb clauses modifying:
• Verb: The Yukon entered Canada’s
confederation after a gold rush brought
100,000 people to the territory (clause
modifies the verb entered).
Examples of Adverb Clauses Modifying Verbs,
Adjectives, Adverbs, or Verbals Cont’d
• Adjective: The miner’s children were nervous whenever
he entered a tunnel (the clause modifies the noun or
direct object nervous).
• Adverb: Today’s dig lasted longer than the one
yesterday (modifies the adverb longer).
• Participle: The miners, cheering whenever someone
made a strike (modifies the participle cheering), were
excited.
• Gerund: Digging wherever miners thought there was
gold (modifies the gerund digging) has left the Yukon
full of old miners.
• Infinitive: The tired miners wanted to relax after the
workday ended (modifies the infinitive to relax).
Elliptical Adverb Clauses …
• In an elliptical adverb clause (especially
those beginning with as or that), the verb
or both the subject and verb are not stated
but are understood. Nevertheless, they still
function to make the subject complete.
• Ex of Verb Understood: I am taller than he
[is].
• The Yukon has almost as many rural
inhabitants as [it has] urban inhabitants.
Noun Clauses
• Noun clauses can perform any function
that a single-word noun can.
• Noun clauses can normally function as
subjects, direct objects, indirect objects,
objects of prepositions, or predicate
nominatives.
Examples of Noun Clauses …
• Subject: Whoever travels the Pelly River follows in the
footsteps of the explorer Robert Campbell.
• Direct Object: You must pack whatever you will need.
• Indirect Object: You should give whoever waits at the
camp a copy of your route.
• Object of a Preposition: Robert Campbell settled trading
camps in whatever regions the Hudson Bay Company
sent him.
• Predicate Nominative: At 40, Campbell’s most notable
achievement was that he established Fort Selkirk.
More on Noun Clauses …
• Noun clauses frequently begin with that,
which, who, whom, or whose. Other words
that can begin noun clauses are how, if
what, whatever, when, where, whether,
whichever, whoever, or whomever.
Some uses of introductory words in noun clauses
• Adjective: John Bell chose which tributary to
explore (which modifies tributary, and, therefore,
functions as an adjective).
• Adverb: We want to know how we should dress
(how modifies the verb dress, and, therefore,
acts as an adverb).
• Subject: I want the recipe from whoever made
that delicious casserole (whoever functions as
the subject of the clause).
• Direct Object: McGill University’s Redpath
Museum, which Sir John William Dawson
founded, specializes in botany and geology
(which functions as the direct object of the
clause).
• No function: The doctor determined that she had
the measles (that has no function in the clause).
When that has no function in the
clause …
• It is oftentimes omitted.
• Example: I know [that] you tried your best.
Careful when identifying clauses …
• Because some of the words that introduce noun
clauses also introduce adjective and adverb
clauses, check the function of the clause in the
sentence to determine its type.
• You can also try substituting the words it, you,
fact, or thing for the clause. If the sentence
retains its smoothness, you probably replaced a
noun clause.
– Noun Clause: I knew that this would happen.
– Substitution: I knew it.
That or Which or Who?
• That or Which or Who?
• Do not use which to refer to persons. Use who
instead. That, though generally used to refer to
things, may be used to refer to a group or class
of people.
[Examples:] The player who [not that or which]
made the basket at the buzzer was named MVP.
The team that scores the most points in this
game will win the tournament (Hacker, A Writer's
Reference 136).
Restrictive and Nonrestrictive
Theory
• The main idea is that all modifiers have
one of two qualities--they are either
essential, tightly bound, defining, and not
separated by punctuation,
• or they are unessential, parenthetic,
loosely bound, and separated by commas.
Amplifying Clauses
• A couple of linguistic works have pointed
out briefly that the duality of restrictive and
nonrestrictive is not as neat as it appears,
but I think that the problem calls for more
attention.
• The two terms are, I believe, polarities, not
categories.
More on Amplifying Clauses
• The conventional grammar books give the
impression that all modifying clauses fall
under one heading or the other, but many
seem to me to fall in between.
• That is, not all clauses are either defining
and essential on the one hand, or
parenthetical on the other, as the
handbooks state.
Amplifying Clauses
• Many clauses contain information that
does not restrict or define the antecedent,
yet these clauses are important, essential,
sometimes even primary information in the
sentence. These clauses are oftentimes
referred to as amplifying clauses.
Student Examples of Amplifying Clauses
Let me give some examples. One type of
amplifying clause is that which amplifies an
adjective that precedes the antecedent noun.
Such clauses are mildly redundant and are very
common in speech and informal writing. Some
examples from students:
• The main character was a rich, egotistic young
man who seemed to think of himself as better
than those around him.
• We often have to find forgiving employers who
will allow us to work unusual schedules so that
we can met our nursing obligations.
• I have a strict schedule that does not allow
many deviations.
• Without the marked modifiers, the relative
clauses would be much more restrictive: "a
schedule that does not allow many deviations."
• With the underlined modifiers, however, the
nouns have been restricted and defined, and yet
one cannot say the relative clauses after them
are therefore nonrestrictive to the extent that
they are unessential.
• We might characterize these sentences by
saying that the writer has spread the task
of description over both the general
adjective coming before the noun and the
more detailed clause coming after it.
Examples of Amplifying Clauses from
the New York Times
• More frequently, however, there is no
preceding adjective, the antecedent itself
is identified intrinsically or in context, and
the amplifying clause makes an important
comment about it.
Some examples from The New York Times:
• How fitting, then, that the Nobel Prize in Literature
comes to Ms. Gordimer as her country begins to
dismantle the system that she has opposed with
such urgency.
• Now the prospect of housing them is looming in
many more neighborhoods--some of them middleclass enclaves--under a new City Charter that
requires that all city projects be spread equitably
among its neighborhoods.
• The committee continued several hours of open
hearings today, followed by a closed session in
which the panel’s members discussed a variety of
classified intelligence matters.
Final Word on Amplifying Clauses
• But such reexamination quickly leads us to
the second question raised at the
beginning of the search for information on
this topic:
• Which topics of grammar do we pass
along to students, and why do we choose
those?
• The reconsideration of restrictive and
nonrestrictive modifiers presented should
lead us to consider not only their accuracy
as grammatical concepts but also their
pedagogical usefulness.
• Some might feel that the amplifying clause
should be added to the mass of
abstractions already heaped on some
students.
• But I think that the practicalities of
punctuation are the real writing issues
here, and that we should consider telling
students in writing classes to put commas
around extra, nonessential information and
letting it go at that, dropping from those
classes and their textbooks the baggage
of the restrictive and nonrestrictive
concepts.
• We can retain them of course in grammar
and linguistics courses, but we as
grammarians perhaps need to become
better than we sometimes are at
distinguishing the grammar information
that we could teach writers from the
grammar information that writers really
need.